When various therapies are applied to patients with cancer (carcinoma), a five year survival rate is often used as a measure of cure. That is, a five year survival rate is a probability that a patient who underwent a cancer diagnosis or therapy will be survival over five years thereafter. By this probability, a progressive level (stage) of cancer, a therapeutic effect and the like are represented.
Until now, the TNM classification comprising the combination of the size of tumor (tumor meter, represented by T), the range where metastasis to lymphonodi are observed (represented by N) and the presence or absence of distant metastasis (represented by M), each of which is determined by clinical method, has been mainly used (“Cancer of the lung,” written by Robert Ginsberg et al., 5th edition, pp. 858 to 910, Lippincott-Raven (1997)). For example, patients judged to be in stage I under the TNM classification means those having a progressive level such that a little over 60% of the patients could be survival for five years if cancer is resected by surgery. Patients judged to be in stage III means those having a progressive level such that at most 20% the patients could be survival even under the same condition.
Recently, focusing on one or two genes specifically expressed in cancer patients or cancer tissues, a therapeutic effect is often predicted by determining the difference in the expression of said gene(s) between patients showing superior therapeutic effect and patients showing poor therapeutic effect (Horio et al, Cancer Research, Vol. 54, pp. 1 to 4, Jan. 1, 1993).